9 days as NCAA president, Charlie Baker's phone is blowing up with 'things I need to fix'

INDIANAPOLIS -- All of this is familiar to Charlie Baker. So very familiar. He has been down this road before. He pulls out his cell phone from the pocket of his suit and holds it up inside a conference room at NCAA headquarters. This phone comes with, shall he call them, suggestions. A lot of suggestions.

Baker, the former two-term Massachusetts governor turned NCAA president March 1, compares his government job to the one he has now, leading the organization that oversees college athletics during what he calls "very turbulent and challenging times."

There are plenty of parallels between the two jobs, but Baker noticed one right away -- the phone calls with the "suggestions."

When he was elected as Massachusetts governor, Baker had a 2-month waiting period before he was sworn in. For two months, his phone blew up with people telling him all the things he needed to fix.

When Baker was named NCAA president in December, he had a waiting period, and it happened again.

"I had two months of just ... this thing buzzing all the time with people who got my number from who knows where, calling me to fill me in on all the things I needed to fix in my first month," Baker, 66, said. "That part of it felt pretty familiar."

The things he needed to fix. Baker knows that is not going to be an easy task, taking on an amateur sports empire of more than 520,000 athletes, 19,000 teams and 1,100 schools.

Nine days into his job, Baker sat down with IndyStar to talk about some of those issues people brought up in their phone calls to him, the challenges he is focused on and the hot topics invading college sports -- NIL, athlete mental health, gender equity and sports facilities.

Baker looks at his new role this way: When he was governor of Massachusetts, he served 7 million people across 351 cities and towns, all with different points of views. Now, his contingency is just as, if not more, diverse.

"One of the things you have to do is figure out how to absorb a lot of information that comes from a lot of points of views," Baker said. "And then try to make the best decision you can on behalf of the people you serve and represent."

'This was not on my radar'

How did you end up here? From governor to NCAA president. Did you just see a job posting and interview? Or did someone reach out to you?

Baker: So, this was not on my radar, OK? And in the middle of October, I got a phone call from Sam Kennedy, who is the CEO of the Boston Red Sox and he said, 'I just read a job description from a search firm for the next president of the NCAA and I thought of you.' And I said, 'Well, that's weird because I would not have been who I would have thought of.'

And he said, 'No you should read this thing.' So he sent it to me and I read it and it talked about working with lots of different constituencies, the idea that it's an organization where you have to figure out the relationship between leading and serving and there are a lot of different voices and a lot of different experiences. And the more I read about it, I thought, 'That does actually sound a lot like what it means to live in public life.'

There are so many people I know and my kids know who never would have gone to college, much less graduated, without college athletics. And it is, in some ways, one of our most important human development programs. I do view it in many respects as a chance to do something significant at a point in time when this whole thing is going through an enormous amount of change. And I'd like it to come out the other end still in a position where it's capable of doing what it needs to do on behalf of the kids that it serves.

An NCAA SWOT analysis is coming

You mention things people said you need to fix. What do you think needs immediate attention?

Baker: One of the things I've done, most of the time, when I've gone into a new organization is brought in a third party to do what I call a SWOT analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And we'll do something like that here. We'll get a whole bunch of people to bid on it and try to choose the best partner to take a look at the organization and figure out where we do have opportunities on the strength side, where we have weaknesses we need to make better, what our issues and concerns are with respect to threats. How do we deal with those. And that process usually takes three or four months.

'The only thing that is true about NIL is everybody lies'

NIL is a hot topic right now. What are your thoughts on that? Legislation? How does the NCAA deal with that?

The biggest challenge with NIL right now is what I will call a 'consumer protection' one. Since nobody knew what it was going to be, it just kind of became. And that is one of the things I heard the most about when people started ringing my phone up, which was there are no roles, there is no transparency, there's no accountability, there are no standards and we're putting student athletes and families in a rough position because of that.

Every deal's a one-off and one of the athletic directors said this, not just to me, she also said it publicly. 'The only thing that is true about NIL is everybody lies.' And so in that environment, you put everybody in a rough spot and especially student-athletes and families.

There should be some sort of uniform standard contract so that people generally are aware of what it is they're signing because there are examples out there and, again, everybody lies so it's hard to tell, but several people have told me stories about student athletes who thought they were signing a deal that was 'X' and it turned out to be 'Y' and the 'Y' part usually means four or five years of representation from the original deal they thought was literally just an NIL deal.

Second is agents should get certified somehow. The same way you can't write mortgages without actually demonstrating a certain skill set and capability and a clean record right?

Third is there should be some kind of registry around the deals so that families know what the so-called market looks like. Right now, nobody knows and we put schools, we put student-athletes, we put families, we put kind of everybody in a very awkward and difficult position by not having any of those things.

Now whether that's something the NCAA develops or something that we work with the federal government on one way or another, it's something that needs to get addressed. And I can tell you this. I was in Washington last week. I'll be in Washington next week. Republicans, Democrats, house members, senate members, everybody I've talked to said that they are aware that this lack of transparency, this lack of accountability, the fact there is no standardization, there is no uniformity, there is no really quote-unquote market that anybody can see is a problem. And I think they're going to take it pretty seriously and maybe we'll get something done on that.

Expanding NCAA Tournament? Which one?

The men's NCAA basketball tournament, people have talked about expanding that. Your thoughts?

Baker: There are a lot of tournaments. It's not (just men's basketball). I'm going to the women's D-1 hockey game in Connecticut. Women's hockey is awesome.

(But on the idea of expanding men's basketball tournament beyond 68 teams?)

Baker: There is a committee that actually oversees the men's tournament. There's another committee that oversees the women's tournament. I'm actually going to meet with both of them today (Friday). Because they have a big weekend. I think those committees are probably the right place to start that discussion and my understanding is they probably won't start talking about it until sometime this summer.

Gender equity in sports

I'm sure you saw the photo of the women's NCAA tournament facilities in 2021 compared to the men's. How do balance that?

Baker: Well the NCAA hired a firm to do a fairly comprehensive analysis of this and they actually created a kind of a framework for all the championships around how to think about the student-athlete experience across all championships, in particular the ones where there is a men's championship and a women's championships. And if a certain number of players come, are supported through the championship process on the men's side, it needs to look the same on the women's side.

They've literally got what I would call almost a scoreboard of elements that make up what they consider to be key pieces of ensuring that the student-athlete experience, whether it's a men's championship or a women's championship, are the same. And they spend a lot of time making sure that everybody actually delivers on all those elements and it's a lot. It's like 40 or 50 elements on that. (The analysis was released publicly) which is sort of our way of actually making sure we deliver on that commitment.

'I watch a lot of sports. Especially a lot of college stuff'

What do you think about all these colleges trying to outdo one another with facilities. Is that a good thing?

Baker: One of the things everybody needs to understand is that it's 520,000 student athletes, it's 1,100 schools, they're all playing the same sports, but they operate in very different models from one end to the other. When I think about my own children's experience, they loved playing (Division III) college football. But if you added up all the people who attended all the games in one season, you probably wouldn't get as many people who has attended one game in a lot of the D-1 schools.

It's just a different model. It's the same sport. It's young people and all the rest but it's just different. And I think one of the things my job, one of our jobs, is to figure out some way to make sure that for the student-athletes who are across this really broad spectrum of experiences, that the experience works for them, whether they're playing in front of 100,000 people or 5,000 people. And that's, in some ways, one of the particularly, these days, biggest challenges we face.

'I certainly understand how legislative processes work'

Do you think that your role and your stature in the federal government could help get legislation passed on NIL. Do you think you'll have any weight?

Baker: I got asked this question when I was at the convention in San Antonio and, look, I certainly understand how legislative processes work. There is a certain amount of camaraderie between and among elected officials. We all know, we all respect what it takes to get there. But in the end, the biggest and most important voices around doing something to create a more transparent and accountable program around NIL, the most important voices are going to be the ones at the schools and the ones who represent the families and the student-athletes.

I was in Washington earlier this week. I talked to a bunch of members of the house and senate, Republicans and Democrats, about some of these issues, saying we need some consumer protections here around NIL and they were all pretty well informed about it. But it wasn't because they'd heard from me. It was because they heard from people in their districts and they heard from the schools in their districts and they heard from the families in their district.

I can certainly play a role here but, in the end, it's going to be the schools and the families and the student-athletes who actually deliver the message that's going to matter most to their elected officials.

Mental health of college athletes

Ten years from now, if you're still here, do you have anything you would like to look back on and say that you've done.

Baker: I think the biggest thing would be in these very turbulent and challenging times to have been able to ensure that the student-athlete experience stays as sort of the focal point of what we're about and that people would say that, hopefully, it got better and became more of what I would describe as that human potential development opportunity that's it's supposed to be.

Being a part of a team, having a purpose, the structure, all that stuff I think it's a huge positive for kids. But I also think, in some respects, they are public figures in their own right, in their own communities and these things (Baker pulls out his phone) create challenges for them.

Some of the student-athletes I've talked to told stories about a teammate or a friend who missed a shot, let in the game-winning goal for the other team, did something and just got withering criticism on social media platforms in their own world, enough that in some cases some of them literally thought about just not playing anymore. You have people coming at you from all kinds of directions and several of (the athletes) said it was sort of a shattering experience and I think we should try and figure out some way to fix that.

More with Baker

What do you like to do when you're not NCAA president.

Baker: It's funny you should say that. I got asked that question at the (NCAA) all-staff earlier this week and I said, 'I have no hobbies.' I really don't. I don't golf. I don't fish. I do read. I like to read. I just finished 'Lincoln on the Verge,' which is a book about Abraham Lincoln's presidency from the time he was elected in early November of 1860 until he actually took office in February. It's a hell of a book. It was a real opportunity for perspective. My worst month was nowhere near as bad as his best day.

Baker is the father of three grown children, and is married to Lauren.

Baker: My wife and I just celebrated the arrival of our first grandchild. I have like I don't know a couple hundred pictures on my phone if you'd like to see them. I think certainly family's always been the one thing I care about the most.

'I do love college sports'

Baker: I mean if you were to say to me, 'Where would you be most likely to see me?' My wife was a gymnast in college. The SEC has that Friday night gymnastics tournament almost every week during the season on their channel. We watch that a lot. My boys played football. My brother was a baseball player. My daughter was a terrific field hockey player in high school. I do love college sports. We watch it all the time.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.